Using Web-Enabled Technology to Promote the Adoption of Practice Guidelines

The rapid expansion of scientific knowledge brings increased physician uncertainty in clinical decisionmaking. Clinical practice guidelines have been developed to reduce physician uncertainty. The broad movement to develop and disseminate clinical practice guidelines is rooted in evidence-based medicine. Although the development and dissemination of evidence-based guidelines has increased dramatically over the past decade, studies indicate serious deficiencies in the adoption of guidelines into practice. Developments such as client/server networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web are rapidly expanding potential educational applications for information and communications technologies and the capacity for introducing strategies to promote guideline adoption. Web-enabled computer technology can enhance the capability of healthcare information systems to reduce variation in clinical decisionmaking.